


Build a Rocket With Me

by xuxisyn



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Anyways, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, I just really like markhei, Light Angst, M/M, also the title is temporary maybe, im actually really nervous HHH, so this might not be good at all, this is my first work ever, yes its a seventeen song
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2019-11-06 19:12:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17945492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xuxisyn/pseuds/xuxisyn
Summary: Mark Lee is a good student, even when it hasn't been the best idea ((socially)) for him. He always gets the best grades, is kind to everyone, and never ever lies.However after meeting Wong Yukhei, maybe lying doesn't seem so bad.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hhhh this again is my first fic for nct and I really just want it to be good and enjoyable. NOTE: v slow updates tysm for reading please give any type of feedback that you can!! chapters are short sorry TT

Mark Lee is a good kid.

If you were to ask any adult that knew him, they would describe him as just that. A quiet, mature, good kid. And there’s good reason for it too, Mark is the type to finish every assignment, the type to listen to everyone and not complain, the type to be kind to even the rudest person. The stereotypical good kid.

Yet if you were to ask any of his classmates, they would have an extremely different view of him. To them, Mark is annoying. The type to be an extreme pushover, which is why he sits alone everyday and he’s bullied at his school.

Mark Lee is a lonely kid.

But he wouldn’t mention that to anyone.

Not when he walks to school, not when he eats alone in the cafeteria, not when he walks back home, not when he runs to his room and lays down on his bed, not when his friends suddenly come over, not when they throw a pillow at him--

Wait what?

Mark lifted himself from the bed only to have the pillow hit him square in the face. “Ow! Jesus Christ Hyuck, what the fuck?”

“Swearing and saying Jesus?” His friend, Donghyuck, replied. “What happened to our goodie two shoes private student?”

He sighed. ‘How did they get here anyways?’ He thought.

So Mark wasn’t completely lonely. He did have friends, they just didn’t go to his school. His parents enrolled him in a private school in 9th grade and he hasn’t left since, now at his final year. He made them before he enrolled and they are some of his best.

Not that he’ll ever admit that but it’s the thought that counts.

There were four of them, all younger than him by a few years. Lee Donghyuck, grade 11, a confident kid who always spoke his mind, sometimes, a little too honest. Na Jaemin, grade 11, a cheerful guy, always happy and caring. Lee Jeno, grade 11, really kind and sweet. And Park Jisung, grade 9, the youngest out of the four and is surprisingly shy. They would often come after school and sit in Mark’s room doing whatever came to mind, mostly roasting Mark.

“Helloooo, Earth to Mark?” Donghyuck called out. “Got any brain cells left?”

Just like today.

“Are you okay? You’re quieter than usual.” Jaemin said, raising a brow.

Mark shook his head and tiredly got into a sitting position on his bed. “Honestly it’s been a long day.”

Jeno looked up from his phone and frowned at him. “You want us to be quiet? You could take a nap.”

“Nah, I’m okay. How did you guys get in here anyways?” He asked.

“We just knocked, your mom let us in and said you were here.” Jisung replied, munching on what it seemed to be chips in a ziploc bag.

Mark frowned. “... Are those my chips?” He said, to which Jisung quickly threw the bag at Jeno. “He was eating them first.” He replied in a panic.

Jaemin stood up from where he sat, walking towards Mark and sitting down next to him. He appeared concerned, placing a hand on his thigh. “You wanna talk about it?”

“It’s been the same old, lonely per usual.” He sighed.

“I swear to God I’m gonna beat all those private school freaks.” Donghyuck scoffed. “They have to be blind to not see how great you are.”

“Hey now,” Mark smirked. “Weren’t you insulting me just a minute ago?”

“That was out of love, come on~” He jokingly whined, the others laughing softly. “Anyways you don’t need any of them. You got us!”

The other three agreed, nodding with smiles. “Hug pile!!” Jaemin bursted out, the four of them rushing to tackle Mark. He gasped as they all pushing him back onto the bed with their hug, crushing him under their weight.

It brought a smile to Mark’s face as well but he still felt a little uneasy. It wasn’t as though he didn’t appreciate them but Mark knew that they couldn’t always see each other and hang out like today. As often as they come over, it wasn’t the same as seeing people at school every single day. Having people to stand up for him, being actually dare. He thought to himself, maybe he was being selfish?

“Alright, alright, get off me before I break a bone.” He groaned, trying his hardest to push them all off him. Eventually they got off, tumbling all to the floor while giggling.

“Oh yeah, I brought Mario Party.” Jisung spoke, rushing to his bag to pull out a case. “We could all play a round before we go.”

“Sure, lemme get out my GameCube.” Mark replied.

“Dibs on Peach!” Jaemin shouted. “We ‘bout to beat you all to a plump.”

Jeno laughed. “Sure Nana, lets see if that happens after Mario and I come up on top.”

“You guys really think you can beat me? Me and Daisy?” Donghyuck gasped mockingly. “This is no brain cell behaviour.”

“Hyuck how long are you gonna go on about brain cells when you got none?” Jaemin grinned, earning a tackle from Donghyuck himself.

Mark laughed at the play fighting, setting up the console on his own. “Are you gonna go with Luigi again?” He heard Jeno ask.

“Nah, I’ll sit out this round.” He shrugged, finally turning the GameCube on.

“Good idea, you could never beat anyone with Luigi.” He huffed.

Mark scoffed, baffled. “Wow. At least I play the better Mario brother.”

Jeno choked on his spit, clearly offended. “Hey!! It’s called “Mario” Brothers for a reason!”

“Yeah, don’t know why they picked the bland brother.”

“Bitch--”

“Can we please just play the game?” Jisung sighed, handing over the CD to Mark. “Everyone knows I’ll win anyways.” His remark was met with multiple groans and shouts of disagreement.

_(Mark noticed that Jisung is really scary when it comes to Mario Party. The day ended with Jisung winning with Yoshi of all characters and everyone being very shocked. ‘It was a good thing I wasn’t playing this round.’ Mark thought.)_


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look into Mark's school life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Theres a lot of bullying in this so be warned !!! :( as always thank you for reading.

‘Another day, another dollar.. Only I’m not making money.’ Mark thought to himself as he opened his locker door. He forcefully shoved his bag in his locker, pulling out what he needed for class. He held his breath as he closed the locker door, feeling stares from the group of classmates passing by him. He sighed as they passed. It was too early to deal with anyone’s shit.

“Hey, you! Freak!”

Or not.

Mark took a breath, turning around to see a group of males. Stereotypical jocks, muscular builds and school team sweaters. They smirked at him, the one who stood in front of them all crossed his arms in order to intimidate him. ‘He should have T posed.’ Mark thought sarcastically.

“You know, why are you so quiet? We’re friends right?” The male spoke, his friends nodding behind him. Mark knew very well that they weren’t friends, and never could be friends. These guys were dicks.

Mark narrowed his eyes. “Well Spencer--”

He didn’t get to finish, as the male, Spencer, grabbed his hair and pushed his head against a row of lockers. Mark dropped the things he was holding onto, his hands and chest smashed into the locker and his cheek squished into it. “I didn’t need an answer.” His friends laughed loudly, some hyping Spencer up for his action.

Spencer was one of those kids who held incredible power over the school and it was probably because of how intimidating he was. 6’2, muscular, captain of the basketball team, and Mark was pretty sure he had seen this guy get into more fights than a professional boxer.

Mark’s eyes darted around. He could see a small crowd forming around the small group, watching in pity. He struggled against Spencer’s hold, expressing that he could use some help. However no one stepped up, completely avoiding his eyes. He felt stupid when a wave of disappointment came over him. He should have expected this. 

“Listen to this, freak,” He spat, strengthen his hold so he could keep him still. “I saw the look you gave me. You don’t get to judge me, you only get to fear me.” He smirked, throwing Mark onto the floor and dusting his hand off on his pants. His friends once again laughed and the group left, as if nothing ever happened.

Mark slowly got himself onto his knees, watching as Spencer and his friends walk into a classroom at the end of the hall. He rubbed his cheek, it hurt, stung badly especially when he touched it. ‘Spencer again..’ He thought, shaking his head. “Not like I could do much huh?” He grumbled.

He picked up his stuff, holding them close to his chest. The crowd disappeared, going to their own classes he would assume, as he trudged to his class. He needed to go to class, not to dwell on this instead.

The first class of the day: French, he’s always hated French class. It was complex and hard to understand for one. The only part that would be useful would be when he places it on his resume. Still, he strived to practice it everyday, just to get that bread.

“I totally agree, it’s super hard to understand! I honestly don’t get it.”

Mark blinked owlishly. He wasn’t speaking out loud, was he? He covered his mouth with his hands, red in embarrassment before taking some time to think. He realized that the voice wasn’t speaking to him at all, so there was no way he could have said anything. 

Turning to where the voice came from, he found himself looking at some of the more popular people in the school. They were coming into the class as a group, smiling happily as they walked towards their desks. He sighed. ‘Of course no one would be speaking to me, especially them.’

He began to analyze the people in the group, listening in to their conversation. They spoke about an endless amount of things, one being how much they hated the class. The voice came from a male, who was extremely loud to say the least. He shouted and cheered and almost made everyone in the class laugh at his antics; Including Mark. He tried leaning on a desk, but missed, falling to his ass. He was dumb, but cute.

As if out of nowhere, he turned to Mark’s direction and met eyes with him. Before Mark could tear his eyes away and cover his face in embarrassment for staring, the male smiled at him.

Mark widened his eyes in surprise. Normally someone would scoff or maybe just ignore him, but he hadn’t expected a smile. It was bright too, maybe a little too bright. His eyes formed small crescents and Mark could swear that he could see this guy sparkle. Who was this guy? Usually, he wouldn’t find much interest in them as they never did the same to him, but suddenly it was different. Suddenly he found himself watching him.

“Bonjour, tout le monde!”

Mark quickly snapped out of his daze and brought his eyes towards the teacher who had just walked in. His face felt hot and he groaned softly in shame. ‘It doesn’t matter if this guy paid some attention to you,’ He told himself. ‘Just calm down, it’s just a smile.’

“Today I’ll be handing back that test you all did, most of you did very good, some..” She trailed off. “Well anyways let me hand this out.”

He watched as she went to every student with a stack of papers, handing one to each and giving small comments on the side. When she reached that popular loud guy, he found himself listening in a little more.

“Now, uh..” She smiled nervously, handing him the paper. “I think you should work on your grammar but remember that there’s always room to improve!”

He checked the paper and furrowed his brows, tilting his head back in frustration. “Pardon my French miss but,” He took a small breath. “Fuck.”

The class giggled, the teacher shaking her head and mumbling a, ‘watch your language’, under her breath. After all of the students had gotten their test back, Mark realized that he was last.

“Mark! Excellent job as always. Bravo! I think some of you could take a lesson from him or two.” She beamed, handing him a paper with a 100% score and a small smiley face.

Mark was genuinely surprised, staring at his paper. ‘Thank God I studied so hard for this.’ His happiness was short lived as he heard a scoff from one of his classmates. “Miss? Can we start class already?”

As the teacher walked away from him, whispers arised from the class. Sentences like ‘what a teacher’s pet’ and ‘could he get any less pretentious?’ travelled through the room and rang in his ears. He hated it, how he be hated just by doing his best?

He couldn’t bring himself to pull his eyes away from his paper to look at the board, to even pay attention to the lesson being taught. Every day, his classmates would find something to pick on, good or bad. Everyday he would be bullied and bullied to no end and everyday no one; not even himself; would stand up to it. He was so tired of this. And it was only the first class.

‘I should be used to this.’ He thought, practically burning holes into his test. That 100% meant nothing other than shame. He crumpled it up and shoved it into his binder. At least his cheek stopped hurting.

He could still feel like someone was staring at him but then again, he didn’t feel like seeing who exactly it was.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A chance?

After an extremely long hour, the class had ended and Mark had to quickly pack up to go to his next class. When he was collecting his books, he could hear footsteps approaching him. It was his teacher.

“Mark I wanted to talk to you about something.” She smiled, her face beaming with excitement.

Mark quirked a brow, confused. “I was speaking to the principal and well,” She took a breath, her eyes shining. “We were thinking of giving you the Principal Award.”

His eyes widened, his mouth falling open. “Me? The Principal Award?” He stammered out. The Principal Award was an award gifted to the best student in the whole school. 

His eyes sparkled with wonder.

“You have to be joking.” The words fell out, to which he quickly shut his mouth by covering it with his hands. The teacher chuckled.

“Mark, you’re extremely kind and studious, I think the award should rightfully go to you.” She explained. “Not to mention that you are the smartest kid in your grade; Don’t tell anyone I said that though.” She grinned.

Mark could feel the tips of his ears getting hot. “But do I really deserve this?” He mumbled.

The teacher sighed, her hand patting his shoulder. “I, for one, think so. It’s not set in stone yet so don’t get too worked up, but if you want more information, come down to the principal’s office after school.”

He nodded in response, an uneasy feeling appearing in his stomach.  
“Now get to your second period, I’ll write you a note, so that your teacher doesn’t mark you late.” She spoke, dashing to her desk to get a pen and paper. “I’ll be at the office so maybe we’ll cross paths!”

He nodded silently once more. Guess he had no choice now.

_________________

He opened his locker at the end of the day, the sun almost setting. He had stayed 10 minutes after his last class so that the hallways would be empty once he left. It was routine for the entirety of his high school life. It served him well, it was peaceful at the end of the day, only a few students left.

He skipped towards the front doors, backpack in arm and ready to dash off when he suddenly stopped in his tracks, eye wide.

“Fuck. The principal award.” He groaned. “I’ll just.. Decline it quickly.” He turned away from the front doors, trudging towards the doors of the office.

Mark nudged the door open, taking a peek inside the unusually quiet office room. He could only spot one woman sitting behind the counter and a male sitting at the seating area.

The woman had her eyes glued to her computer, fingers hitting the keys furiously and passionately. Mark waited till she noticed him, his eyes crawling over every piece of the office to distract himself until he heard the male sitting at the seating area clear their throat very loudly.

Her head snapped up at the sound. “Oh! Is that Mark Lee?” She grinned, her hands finally leaving her keyboard.

He smiled nervously. “Hello miss.” He spoke.

“You’re here to see the principal correct? He’s in with someone right now, you’re going to have to wait.”

‘Well I guess I can just go then!’ He laughed softly, making sure that she couldn’t secretly hear the relief in his voice. “That’s okay, I’ll just come back tomorrow.”

“No, no!” She gleefully interrupted. “I’m sure he’ll be done soon, just wait here.”

“Oh, well, alright.” He stammered. Dammit, this means he has to stay. A soft sigh escaped his lips as he sunk into the seat next to the other person in the room. He stared up at the ceiling, too tired to think of anything else.

“Hey.”

‘Should I just leave? Maybe I should come up with an excuse.. But is that a little too mean?’

“Hey?”

‘What if I call Hyuck and ask him to pick me up? Fake an emergency?’

“Hello?”

‘What if I just pretend to faint! Then they’re forced to take me home--’

“Hey, dude!”

Mark blinked owlishly, his train of thought stopped by this sudden voice. He turned to his side, seeing the other person beside him staring right at him. He recognized him, it was the guy from his French class.

He had to take a double take, to make sure he was talking to him and not some random person who had walked into the room just then. Sure enough, there wasn’t anyone else in the seating area other than them.

The guy chuckled softly, amused at his actions. Mark marveled at his smile once more. “Did you think I was talking to someone else?” Mark could feel his face grow hot.

“What are you in here for?” He asked.

“Oh, uh,” Mark stammered again, pressing his lips into a straight line as he thought. “I might get the principal award.” He whispered.

“Dude, seriously?!” The other male exclaimed, quickly being shushed by Mark and the office lady, who quickly went back to her work. “That’s so cool!” He whispered yelled, making Mark chuckle.

“Chill.” He replied, shaking his head. “I think I’m gonna decline it.”

The male’s facial expressions were hard to read. First, shock, then confusion, then something that Mark couldn’t really decipher.

“Why though?” He asked.

He thought for a bit. Was he really about to spill his feelings out to a complete stranger in an office that most likely had an office lady eavesdropping? He shook his head once more. “That’s a story for another day.”

The other nodded, smiling once more. That smile is too much for his heart but at the same time he could stare at it forever. But this smile seemed more sympathetic than the one in the morning. It took a minute to realized how quiet it had gotten, just of Mark staring at this guy who now looked partially confused and concerned.

“What are you in here for?” He asked, turning his eyes to the floor.

“Ahh, I got into a fight.”

“Oh.” Mark uttered out. “Are you okay?”

The boy laughing, smirking as he jokingly flexed his arms. “Don’t worry, it takes a lot more than a fight to take me down. Although my cheek still hurts.”

Mark frowned. “Can I know what happened?”

He chuckled, reaching out to pat his shoulder. “That,” He started. “Is a story for another day.”

Mark paused for a moment, mouth widening before pouting. “Oh I see, stealing my words, huh?” The boy laughed loudly in response. “You’re a thief-”

“Lucas.”

“Huh?”

“My name is Lucas.”

“Oh,” He nodded, reaching out his hand. “Nice to meet you Thief Lucas. I’m Mark.”

He laughed again, shaking his hand. “Nice to meet you too, Mark.”

“Mark!”

Their heads turned to the voice, seeing that the principal had been standing at a door behind the counter with another student. The other student looked just as beat up as Lucas did. Once he had made eye contact with the two, he glared at him, Mark quirking his eyebrow up in response.

“Hello sir.” Mark spoke, standing up from his seat.

“I hope you’re doing well,” He spoke, smiling softly. “If you’re meeting with me, I’m sorry but I have to take care of some more students. I hope you can wait.” As he spoke, he glanced over to Lucas beside him. 

‘Oh. The fight.’ Mark deduced. “That’s okay sir, I think I can wait a little more.” He spoke, yet he couldn’t help the disappointment that came through. He just wanted to get this over with.

“Very well. You,” He looked to the student who glared at them. “Go home now. And you,” He gestured at Lucas to follow. “Come inside.”

Mark watched as the other student ran through the doors before he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Lucas.

“Hey man, this might not mean much but,” He took a breath, grinning straight after. “Think it over a little more. The award. At home, maybe. You really deserve it.” He whispered the last part.

Mark’s eyes widened, blinking owlishly as he watched Lucas follow behind the principal to his office and slam the door shut. He stood there, dumbfounded and confused. 

Nevertheless, it was a good idea. He’ll just think about it a little more.

“Uhm, miss,” He called out to the office lady. “I need to go home, can I leave the principal a note?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They finally meet !! uwu I'm sorry for updating so late TTTT I'm gonna try my best to better write to you all so I hope you'll join me on this journey uwu !!! Please tell me what I can improve on !


End file.
